Four sitting bills would offer amped-up victim protection

Two bills discussed today at a hearing of the Ohio House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee would, if passed, offer greater protections to victims of domestic violence and extend them more legal rights to protect their employment, housing and financial livelihood.Those bills will join H.B. 243 and H.B. 160, which are still awaiting hearings before the judiciary committee and would, respectively, require individuals served with temporary protection orders to surrender their firearms and offer legal protection to the pets of domestic violence victims — often cited as a reason victims have difficulty leaving a violent situation. Most significant are the changes that would be implemented by H.B. 297, first introduced to the Ohio House in October by Reps. Ann Gonzales (R-Westerville) and Denise Driehaus (D-Cincinnati). The bill outlines new legal protections for domestic violence victims who need to terminate a rental agreement or take unpaid leave at work in order to deal with domestic violence incidences. Under the bill, victims of domestic violence would be legally protected against termination at work and have the ability to dissolve a rental lease if the tenant has been a victim of domestic violence. The bill would also prohibit landlords from kicking out tenants because they've been victims of domestic violence at the residence and requires them to comply with requests to change locks when a tenant has been a victim of stalking or menacing. H.B. 309, also introduced in October, by Reps. Dorothy Pelanda (R-Marysville) and Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood), would dissolve any charges related to modifications made to a domestic violence, anti-stalking or other type of protection order or consent agreementIn August, CityBeat spoke with domestic violence victim Andrea Metil, who talked about her personal experiences with legal trip-ups that made protecting herself from her attacker difficult. Metil called for stronger legislation to protect victims of domestic violence. This is the first hearing for both of the bills.

A unanimous City Council vote on Wednesday to pass a resolution officially representing Cincinnati's opposition to the proposed H.B. 203, Ohio's own version of controversial "Stand Your Ground" laws, is part of a statewide advocacy effort to oppose loosening restrictions on the use of deadly force.The vote puts Cincinnati in the middle of a national dialogue that's been ongoing since the death of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., in 2012. The bill, introduced by House Republicans on June 11, contains several revisions to the state's gun laws, the most controversial of which is the proposal to expand the circumstances in which a person has no duty to retreat from a threatening situation before using force in self-defense. Those in opposition to the bill worry that change will encourage vigilante justice and give gun owners a false sense of entitlement in using their firearms in otherwise non-violent situations. The bill's language also loosens restrictions on concealed carry permits and would make it easier for individuals subject to protection orders to obtain handguns. State Rep. Alicia Reece spoke at a Wednesday press conference at City Hall to support Cincinnati's formal opposition to the bill. Reece, also president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, is part of its statewide campaign to garner enough opposition to H.B. 203 to present to Gov. John Kasich and other legislative leaders. She says OLBC has already collected about 5,000 petitions and hopes to obtain more than 10,000 by the time the Ohio House of Representatives resumes regular sessions on Oct. 2. Reece and Councilwoman Yvette Simpson, who sponsored the resolution, insist that Ohio's self-defense laws are already strong enough to protect those who face physical threats from others. In 2008, then-Gov. Ted Strickland signed Ohio's "Castle Doctrine" into law, which stripped homeowners of the duty to try to retreat in threatening situations and gives them the "benefit of the doubt" when they injure or kill a person who enters their residence or vehicle. "While many states around the country which have Stand Your Ground laws are looking at ways in which they can repeal those laws, or change those laws, unfortunately Ohio is moving backwards by trying to implement Stand Your Ground laws, which has become one of the most polarizing issues not only in the state of Ohio, but in the country," said Reece at Wednesday's press conference. The efficacy of stand-your-ground laws to reduce violence is widely debated; several researches insist that the laws actually cause an increase in homicides. Mark Hoekstra, an economist with Texas A&M University, published a study that found homicides increase 7 to 9 percent in states that pass stand your ground laws, compared to states that didn't pass laws over the same period. His study found no evidence the laws had an effect on deterring crime during the time period. Those statistics are difficult to gauge, however, because some homicides are legitimately considered "justifiable" while others may just be the result of the "escalation of violence in an otherwise non-violent situation," he told NPR in January.H.B. 203 is currently waiting to be heard in front of the Policy and Legislative Oversight committee. See an analysis of the bill below:Analysis of H.B. 203

Measure would ban abortion as early as six weeks after conception

Ohio legislators today
reintroduced a bill that would ban abortions in the state as early as six weeks after
conception, even as questions remain about the proposal’s
constitutionality.
The bill has been dubbed the “heartbeat bill” because it prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
In the past, some of Ohio’s anti-abortion groups,
including Ohio Right to Life, raised concerns about the heartbeat bill
because they said it could lead to legal challenges that would endanger
the anti-abortion movement. So far, Ohio Right to Life’s concerns might be proving true in North Dakota. A federal judge on July 22 blocked a similar law in that state after deeming it unconstitutional. “The United States Supreme
Court has unequivocally said that no state may deprive a woman of the
choice to terminate her pregnancy at a point prior to viability,” wrote
U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland, who was appointed to the District of
North Dakota seat by former President George W. Bush in 2002.Health experts generally agree viability is not reached until 24 weeks into the pregnancy.
When contacted earlier today, Ohio Right to Life said it’s not providing comment on the bill yet.
Abortion-rights advocates are already standing against the proposal,
which they call “the heartless bill” and an attack on women’s rights.
“Here we go again,” says Kellie Copeland, executive
director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio. “A month after Gov. Kasich signed one of the
worst anti-choice bills in the nation that is already closing abortion
facilities, you’ve got this group coming back and saying, ‘No, no, no,
that’s not good enough. You have to outlaw abortion before women even
know they’re pregnant.’ ”
Forty of 99 legislators in the Ohio House have signed onto the bill, according to The Associated Press.
The Ohio Senate majority caucus and Gov. John Kasich have so far
declined to comment on the bill when asked by various reporters.
In June, the Republican-controlled General Assembly and Kasich passed a two-year state budget
that imposes regulatory hurdles that make it more difficult
to get an abortion in Ohio and have already forced various abortion
clinics to shut down in Ohio.

Republican state legislators are using the two-year state
budget to pass sweeping anti-abortion measures — and they’re proud to
admit it.
The goal is “to maintain the sanctity of human life,” says Michael Dittoe, spokesperson for Ohio House Republicans.Most recently, the House-Senate conference committee,
which put the final touches to the state budget, tacked on an amendment that requires doctors to perform an external ultrasound on a
woman seeking an abortion and inform the woman if a heartbeat is
detected. The doctor would also be required to explain the statistical
probability of the woman carrying the fetus to birth.
The amendment came in addition to other anti-abortion measures in the budget that would reprioritize family services
funding to effectively defund Planned Parenthood, increase
funding for anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers and impose
regulations that the state health director could use to shut down
abortion clinics.
Under the regulations, abortion clinics would be unable to
set patient transfer agreements with public hospitals, and established
agreements could be revoked by the state health director. At the same
time, if a clinic doesn’t have a transfer agreement in place, the state
health director could shut it down with no further cause.
The rules allow abortion clinics to set agreements with
private hospitals, but abortion rights advocates argue that’s more
difficult because private hospitals tend to be religious.
Abortion rights advocates are protesting the measures, labeling them an attack on women’s rights.
“If the governor and members of the Ohio General Assembly
want to practice medicine, they should go to medical school,” said
Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, in a
statement. “We urge Gov. (John) Kasich to veto these dangerous
provisions from the budget. Party politics has no place in a woman’s
private health care decision. The time is now to stand up and lead, not
in the interests of his party, but in the interests of the women and
families he has been elected to lead.”
Dittoe insists Republicans are not attacking women with
the measures: “The women in our caucus have introduced some of these
proposals. It’s hard to say it’s a ‘war on women’ when you have women
actually introducing the legislation. It’s certainly not about an attack
on women; it’s about protecting human life.”
Abortion rights supporters rallied today in Columbus in a
last-minute stand, calling on Kasich to line-item veto the measures — a
move that would keep the rest of the budget in place but nullify the
anti-abortion provisions.
Kasich has so far declined to clarify whether he will veto
the anti-abortion measures, instead punting multiple reporters’
questions on the issue.
Much of the debate has focused on Planned Parenthood,
which provides abortion services, sexually transmitted infection and
cancer screening, pregnancy tests, birth control and various other
health care services for men and women.
Supporters point out no public funds go to abortion
services, which are entirely funded through private donations. Public
funds are instead spent on Planned Parenthood’s other services.
Dittoe says that Republicans still take issue with the
abortion services, and it’s the sole reason Planned Parenthood is losing
funding.
“Members of the House who have issues with Planned
Parenthood have only issues with the abortion services,” he says. “The
rest of what Planned Parenthood provides, I imagine they have no issue
with whatsoever.”About 15 percent of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio’s budget comes from the family planning grants that are being reworked. Not all of that money is allocated by the state government; a bulk is also set by the federal government.
The anti-abortion changes will go into effect with the $62
billion state budget for fiscal years 2014 and 2015. Both chambers of the Republican-controlled General
Assembly passed the budget today, and Kasich is expected to
sign the bill into law this weekend.Check out all of CityBeat’s state budget coverage:• Report: State Budget Tax Plan Favors Wealthy• State Budget's Education Increases Fall Short of Past Funding
• State Budget Rejects Medicaid Expansion

Republican state legislators today rolled out a major tax overhaul
that would cut Ohio income taxes, but the plan would also increase and
expand sales and property taxes.
Legislators plan to add the tax changes to the $61.7
billion two-year budget. The final plan is being touted as a
merger of the original proposals from the Ohio House and Senate, but
none of the proposed tax hikes in the revised plan were included in the
original tax proposals from either chamber.
Relative to rates today, the new plan would cut state
income taxes across the board by 8.5 percent in the first year of the
budget’s implementation, 9 percent in the second year and 10 percent in
the third year. That’s a bump up from the House plan, which only included a
7-percent across-the-board income tax cut.
The Senate’s 50-percent tax deduction for business owners
would be reduced to apply to up to $250,000 of annual net
income, down from $750,000 in the original plan. Under the
revised plan, a business owner making a net income of $250,000 a year
would be able to exempt $125,000 from taxes.
The plan would also create an earned income tax credit that would give a tax refund to low- and moderate-income working Ohioans.
To balance the cuts, the plan would hike the sales tax
from 5.5 percent to 5.75 percent. Some sales tax exemptions would be
eliminated, including exemptions for digital goods such as e-books and iTunes
downloads.
The plan would also make two major changes to property taxes:
First, the state would not pay a 12.5-percent property tax rollback on new property tax levies, which means future levies for schools, museums and other services would be 12.5 percent more expensive for local homeowners.
Second, the homestead tax exemption,
which allows disabled, senior and widowed Ohioans to shield up to
$25,000 of property value from taxes, would be graduated over time to be
based on need. In other words, lower-income seniors would still qualify
for the exemption, while higher-income seniors wouldn’t. Current
exemptions would remain untouched, according to House Finance and
Appropriations Committee Chairman Ron Amstutz.
The final tax plan is a lot closer to Gov. John Kasich’s
original budget proposal, which left-leaning Policy Matters Ohio
criticized for disproportionately favoring the wealthy (“Smoke and Mirrors,” issue of Feb. 20).
The budget must now be approved by the conference committee, House, Senate and Gov. John Kasich in time for a June 30 deadline.

The Hamilton County Court of Appeals refused to delay enforcement
of its earlier ruling on the city’s plan to lease its parking meters,
lots and garages to the Greater Cincinnati Port Authority, which will
allow the city administration to sign the lease as soon as a lower court
rescinds its original injunction on the plan. Six out of nine City
Council members say they want to repeal or rework the deal, but City
Solicitor John Curp says Mayor Mark Mallory, who supports the plan, has
the power to hold any repeal attempts until Nov. 30, which means he can
effectively stop any repeal attempts until the end of his final term as
mayor.
City Manager Milton Dohoney told City Council yesterday that the state government will not pay for the I-71/MLK Interchange
if the city doesn’t pick up some of the cost. Dohoney made the
statement when explaining how he would use the $92 million upfront money
from the parking plan. The interchange project has long been sought out by city and state officials to create jobs and better connect uptown businesses to the rest of the area and state.
State officials told The Cincinnati Enquirer the final budget plan may include downsized versions of the tax cut plans
in the Ohio House and Senate budget bills. The House bill
included a 7-percent across-the-board income tax cut, while the Senate bill included a 50-percent income tax deduction for business
owners worth up to $375,000 worth of income. Democrats have criticized the
across-the-board income tax cut for cutting taxes for the wealthy and the
business tax cut for giving a tax cut to passive
investors, single-person firms and partnerships that are unlikely to add
jobs. Republicans claim both tax cuts will spur the economy and create jobs.
Ohio ranked No. 46 out of the 50 states for job creation
in the past year, according to an infographic from Pew Charitable
Trusts. Both Ohio and Alaska increased their employment levels by 0.1
percent. The three states below Ohio and Alaska — Wisconsin, Maine and
Wyoming — had a drop in employment ranging from 0.2 percent to 0.5
percent.
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced 8,229 new entities filed to do business in Ohio in May, up from 7,687 the year before.StateImpact Ohio has an ongoing series about “value-added,” a state-sanctioned method of measuring teacher performance, here. The investigation has already raised questions
about whether value-added is the “great equalizer” it was originally
made out to be — or whether it largely benefits affluent school
districts.The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency awarded $5,690 to the Cincinnati Nature Center
for its teacher training program Nature in the Classroom. The grant
will help continue the program’s goals of training first through
eighth grade teachers about local natural history, how to implement a
science-based nature curriculum and how to engage students in exploring
and investigating nature.
Controversial Cincinnati attorney Stan Chesley yesterday was suspended from arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kings Island and Cedar Point were among the top 15 most visited amusement parks in the nation in 2012 — after the obvious hotspots in California and Florida.
Meet NASA’s astronaut class of 2013.
Google is launching balloon-based Internet in New Zealand.
Got questions for CityBeat about anything related to Cincinnati? Submit your questions here and we’ll try to get back to you in our first Answers Issue.
CityBeat is looking to talk to convicted drug offenders
from Ohio for an upcoming cover story. If you’d like to participate or
know anyone willing to participate, email glopez@citybeat.com.

City Manager Milton Dohoney signed an agreement Monday to lease its parking meters, lots and garages to the Greater Cincinnati
Port Authority, but the mayor and City Council may still make changes
to the controversial parking plan before it’s implemented. In the past
week, the Hamilton County Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s
ruling, made the parking plan insusceptible to a referendum and refused
to delay enforcement on the ruling, which allowed the city manager to
sign the lease within days. Still, the city won’t spend the $92 million
lump sum from the lease until there is legal certainty, meaning until
appeals from opponents are exhausted. (Correction: The city
signed the lease Monday, not Tuesday as originally reported in the story.
The city made the announcement Tuesday, which caused confusion and
miscommunication.)
City Council is discussing whether it needs to set funds for the I-71/MLK Interchange project. The state is asking the city to contribute $20 million, but
some council members are questioning whether the state would pursue the
project without city support. The city administration says the state is insisting on the city’s participation. City Council originally planned
to use funds from the parking lease to pick up the city’s share of the
tab for the project, which officials estimate will produce thousands of
jobs in the region.
After introducing two competing Medicaid bills in the Ohio House, leaders said they’re unlikely to vote on the bipartisan measures before the General Assembly’s summer recess. One of the bills would create a
Medicaid oversight committee and instruct the state Medicaid director to
find cost savings without cutting benefits. The other bill would take
up the federally funded Medicaid expansion while taking measures to diminish access to
narcotics through the health care system and encourage cost sharing and
private sector plans among Medicaid recipients. Gov. John Kasich is
still pushing the General Assembly to pass the Medicaid
expansion, whether it’s through the budget, these bills or other means.
Ohio will end the current budget year with an unused surplus of $397 million,
according to the state budget director. Kasich says the money should go
toward tax cuts. The Ohio House and Senate are currently discussing
merging their tax plans in the 2014-2015 budget, which could mean taking up smaller versions of the House’s 7-percent across-the-board income
tax cut and the Senate’s 50-percent income tax reduction for business
owners worth up to $375,000 of annual income.
Sequestration, a series of across-the-board federal budget cuts, will cost Ohio $284 million
in fiscal year 2013, according to a Policy Matters Ohio report. For the
state, that means slower economic growth, furloughed defense
workers, cuts to county funds for social services, public health service
reductions and further downsizing of the Head Start program, which supports
preschool. CityBeat covered the early impact of sequestration in Ohio here.
The American Medical Association will soon decide if obesity is a disease.
The U.S. House passed an anti-abortion bill that would restrict almost all abortions to the first 20 weeks since conception. The bill is unlikely to move past the House.
Landlords are less likely to respond to rental inquiries from gay couples.
The Congressional Budget Office says immigration reform would save money and boost economic growth.
Researchers have apparently mastered the art of the bat and can now “hear” the size of a room.
Got questions for CityBeat about anything related to Cincinnati? Submit your questions here and we’ll try to get back to you in our first Answers Issue.
CityBeat is looking to talk to convicted drug offenders
from Ohio for an upcoming cover story. If you’d like to participate or
know anyone willing to participate, email glopez@citybeat.com.